Saturday, January 6, 2007

Old Time Second Life: Part One

After I started my new Blog I recieved some strong commentary and opinions, both positive and negative, but I also recieved a request. I met with a fine fellow furry and we got to talking about Second Life in the past, and I mentioned the height tax. He commented that he didn't know what that was. He said to me, and I paraphrase, 'I've been on Second Life for two years and people think of me as an oldbie, but you've been around for a year longer than me!' So he told me I should talk about the early times of Second Life and it would guarantee me an audience. I don't want to disappoint the first fan of my Blog, and I'm only too happy to talk about the history of Second Life.

Probably the most important part of Second Life's history is the people. So much in Second Life is created by the users and so many users have done great things in the world. I'm going to start by naming some other SL oldbies and I'll tell you a bit about them. I'm going to leave some out only because I can't remember their names or the specifics of their achievements, and I don't want to misrepresent them. If you see any of these people in world, be sure to show them some serious respect, and not just for being here longer than you.Arito Cotton - Arito started SL around the same time as I did, and we were chums in the old days. He invented the modern furry avatar, which uses an animated texture for the eyes and clumped spheres to create organic shapes. I still remember when he made my original furry avatar, and Phoenix Linden saw me blinking, and he brought every Linden in the LL office into his little office to watch me blink. Or at least, he told me that he did...Bhodi Silverman - Bhodi's earliest famous thing (she's done a lot of famous things) that I can recall was opening an art gallery in the Jessie simulator. Jessie was, at the time, the only open-combat sim. That meant that the whole sim was damage enabled, and people both could and would shoot at you at their leisure. If you've never heard of 'damage' in SL, that's because almost nobody sets their land as damage, and Jessie and is one secluded sim among hundreds that make up the main grid.Bob Bunderfield - Bob Bunderfield, Bob the Builder as many of us like to call him, is quite the historical figure in Second Life. I'll have to reminice over the Olive vs. Slate conflict sometime, but suffice it to say this guy has been building both awesome structures and awesome communities for a very long time. There's too much to say here, but look up "Slate" in your SL history books. He's still in Second Life and last I saw he was taking comissions to build houses, so look him up.Cubey Terra - Cubey Terra and I both started at the same time, and we met and became friends in the Olive sandbox, back when Olive was a sandbox. He's always been into planes and he builds some of the best around. He's my next-door neighbor in world, at the Abbotts Aerodrome. I suggest you check it out. He's famous for his popular DIY flight scripts, but also for Skydiving, which to this day is a popular activity among SL users.Darwin Appleby - I'm not sure what to say about Darwin Appleby. Like me, his contributions largely went under the radar. He was a genius. A real, certified genius. Nice guy too. If you search your inventory you'll probably find something either made by him, or stolen from him. I'm pretty sure he created the Watermelon Gun that everybody hates so much.Derek Jones - The Original Monkeyman, Derek Jones was a near constant sight in the Sandbox back in the early days. There were no privately owned sandboxes back then, so anybody who was creating stuff either did it at their home build or in the sandbox. All of us mad scientists ended up working next to eachother. I can't think of any one great thing he did, he was just terribly cool to have around, and his builds were always a thrill to visit.Eggy Lippman - Eggy Lippman has been around SL a very long time. He's probably most famous for his skyscrapers. While not technically impressive, they were certainly visually impressive. I believe he's still making Skyscrapers and towers on commission in Second Life to this day. He's also always been an outspoken person on SL politics and policy.Fleabite Beach - Fleabite Beach is probably most famous for her part in Americana and the Tax Revolt. Those were great things, except for the music store in Americana which played hot jazz music at all hours of the day and night so loud you could hear them a sim and a half away, which just happened to be where I lived. ;) Also she was a catgirl and a furry before the modern furry avatar type, using only skins and a prim tail and ears.Hikaru Yamamoto - Hikaru Yamamoto is most notable for the anime contribution to Second Life. She owned about half of a sim and used it to host an anime-themed flea-market of posters, paraphenalia, and music.Lance LeFay - Lance LeFay, the legendary Merchant of Death, is one of the most interesting people in Second Life to me. He's actually something of a griefer, and he's always gotten away with it. He is most famous for his weapons development, and has created many of the most devastating weapons in Second Life history. He was the one who originally created the 'cage' device, the black tube that shoots people into orbit, which is still in use annoying the heck out of people today.Lola Bombay - Lola is someone I haven't seen in SL in a long time. I think she quit more than a year ago, or perhaps switched to a different character name. She hosted the best house parties in SL history, in this squirrel's opinion. She played live music in Second Life back before streaming audio. Yes, her and her band used scripted in-world synthesizers to play all their own music!Tiger Crossing - Tiger was something of a hero of mine. Not only have his SL contributions been incredible, but he was actually employed at Bethesda and was on the team that created Oblivion. Some of his greatest works were art pieces at the Lindenworld Theme Park and the various Burning Life art festivals that occur each year.Xylor Baysklef - Xylor Baysklef is pretty much the reason I don't call my store "Baysklef Scripting" or something. We both have the same SL surname and we're both fantastic scripters. He might even be better than me; he was certainly more prolific. Many of the basic scripts located on the LSL scripting wiki were originally coded by him, and he created many really awesome experimental scripts and devices in Second Life. I don't know if he still plays or not.

All of these people, whatever their special achievements, are folks who made the early Second Life what it was. It was because of them that Second Life was great, even more than the Lindens who created the world.

Now I'm going to wrap this up by telling you my plans here. I'd like to continue this "Old Time Second Life" section as an on-going segment of my Blog here. I'll bring up topics I feel it's important to remember in Second Life's history, and I'll also answer sensible questions. So go ahead and ask questions in reply to this post. I look forward to hearing from you.